West Henderson teacher wins national honor

Brenda Gorsuch is second teacher in US to win both yearbook and journalism awards

West Henderson High School Teacher Brenda Gorsuch reacts after being named National Yearbook Adviser of the Year by the Journalism Education Association during a program after school on Monday.

Patrick Sullivan / Times-News

By NANCY TANKERTimes-News Staff Writer

Published: Monday, January 6, 2014 at 6:14 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, January 6, 2014 at 6:14 p.m.

West Henderson High teacher Brenda Gorsuch had trouble holding back the tears Monday afternoon at a surprise ceremony where she was named 2013 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year by the prestigious Journalism Education Association.

Gorsuch teaches journalism and English literature at West and is the school’s publication adviser, supervising the creation of the school yearbook, Westwind, as well as the school newspaper, Wingspan. She was also a Times-News reporter in the late 1970s.

She is the first teacher in North Carolina to win the yearbook adviser award, which JEA instituted in 1995. In 2004, she was named the National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year by the Dow Jones News Fund. Gorsuch is now the second person to receive both recognitions.

The first person to win both awards, retired Missouri educator Homer L. Hall, presented Gorsuch with her yearbook award on Monday.

Ticking off Gorsuch’s accomplishments to the assembled audience of about 100, Hall said, “She is the recipient of National Scholastic Press Association’s Pioneer Award, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Key Award and Southern Interscholastic Press Association’s Distinguished Service Award. She has been recognized by JEA as a Master Journalism Educator and by the Western North Carolina Press Association as the Journalism Adviser of the Year. In addition, West Henderson High School has twice honored her with the Teacher of the Year Award.”

Student Melissa White, a senior at West and yearbook co-editor in chief, said after the ceremony that she has learned a lot from her accomplished teacher over the last four years. “She has a way of making you feel important. She sees your weaknesses and turns them into strengths. I want to go to college for graphic design because of her.”

White recalled a school trip to Boston when she had time to get to know Gorsuch on a more personal basis. “She told me, ‘If you start to sink, I will always be there for you.’ ”

Gorsuch’s father, Ed Walker, said teaching has been in his daughter’s blood since early on. “She’s been a teacher since she’s been in kindergarten,” he said. “She would line up her siblings and teach them what she learned in school that day. She’s a perfectionist.”

His wife, Exene, agreed, saying she was so proud of her daughter that despite health issues, “I’m here when I shouldn’t be.” She added that her daughter is “very dedicated. I don’t know a teacher who is more dedicated than she is.”

Mary Kay Downes of Chantilly, Va., made the trip despite the cold weather to help her friend celebrate her surprise win. A former National Yearbook Adviser of the Year award winner herself, Downes said she has been to numerous yearbook conferences and seminars with Gorsuch over the years.

“I admire everything she has done,” Downes said. “Everything she does reflects teaching at the highest caliber.”

Monica Hill, director of the N.C. Scholastic Media Association, which is based at the journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said Gorsuch “has been one of the most important leaders in scholastic journalism in North Carolina for the past three decades. She is an excellent teacher and is very generous in terms of wanting to see her students succeed. The yearbooks at West Henderson are known across the country to reflect the work of strong journalism students and that is to the students’ credit, but it’s also because they have a strong journalism instructor.”

Journalism Education Association Executive Director Kelly Furnas said Gorsuch is well known not only for her accomplishments but the way that she helps students grow. “She gives them that sense of ownership,” he said. “That’s the reason she deserves this award.”

Reflecting on the ceremony, Gorsuch’s husband, Jeff, said he couldn’t agree more. “She gives her students guidance and then trusts them to do their job, and the students work very, very hard for her. She’s given her heart and soul to the journalism program at West.”

Gorsuch’s son, James, a Hendersonville attorney, said the award was “well deserved” because the school’s journalism program “is something she has dedicated her life to.”

“I’m proud … when the yearbook comes out, because it’s proof of what the students have learned,” Gorsuch said after the ceremony. “We don’t need a test score.”

In preparing the yearbook, “the students do everything,” she said. “They write the copy, take the photos, lay out the book, sell the ads, write the headlines and edit all the copy, take in the money, do the bookkeeping and make the deliveries — everything is done by the students.”

About 65 students are on the yearbook staff. The school has an enrollment of just over 1,000.

The yearbook, a glossy hardback that costs $75, takes in more than $100,000 in sales a year, Gorsuch said. “I tell them we are running a small business in a high school classroom. We have T-shirts that read: ‘Students pay to read my homework.’ They don’t do it for a grade. They do it for their classmates.”

Assistant Principal Shannon Auten said Gorsuch is a tireless organizer.

“Not only is Mrs. Gorsuch the adviser of our award-winning yearbook and newspaper, a fantastic English teacher, and an amazing mentor to our students, but she also organizes and runs our graduation ceremony, our homecoming, and many other important events at West Henderson,” Auten said. “They say everyone can be replaced, but I don’t know what we would do without her.”

Reach Tanker at 828-694-7871 or nancy.tanker@blueridgenow.com.

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